Wed 5th September 2012 - Lower Smite Farm

Ok so this post is slightly out of sink as my last one was for the 6th September, but I would like to maintain a bit of momentum and I thought this walk was perhaps worth sharing.

As some of you are aware, I volunteer one day a week at Worcestershire Biological Record Centre helping on the admin side of things. The WBRC is located at Lower Smite Farm next to the headquarters of the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.

The Trust has managed and farmed LSF in a wildlife friendly manner for a number of years now and there is a variety of habitats for fauna and flora here. There are a number of walks around parts of the farm and it is really worth a visit at some point if you are a trust member on just interested in arable wildlife. LSF is especially good during the summer months for invertebrates and the ponds here home to a range of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies to you and I!).

Whilst on my lunch I decided to grab my bins and camera and go for a perambulation around part of the reserve. I headed across to the thistle field which just looked spot on for a passage Whinchat perched up. No such luck but I did however note 3 Meadow Pipits flying over heading SSW, a sign of autumn migration.

From the fields I headed over to the Orchard Pools. Here the dragonflies were performing well with 3 mating pairs of Common Darter seen egg-laying. 3 Ruddy Darters (2♂, 1♀) were recorded and one of which was obliging enough to land on the nearby bench and allow me to take some reasonable shots. Also present were 1 Brown Hawker and 2 Migrant Hawkers. The only damselfly species I noted were Blue-tailed Damselfly and Common Blue.

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About this blog

Welcome to Shenstone Birder. The aim of this blog is to share my wildlife experiences from places that I visit in search of fauna and flora.

This blog has evolved from what was my local patch blog 'Shenstone Birder'. All Shenstone Birder posts will remain on this blog as the serve as an historic record of species recorded within that area (Shenstone, Stone, Summerfield and Captains Pool)